Last month, Germany’s Health Ministry released a draft amendment that, if approved as is, would dramatically roll back Germany’s emerging medical cannabis industry and directly impact suffering patients’ safe access to medical cannabis. A recent survey conducted by MedCanOneStop helps quantify the potential harm of the proposal.
“The Federal Ministry of Health’s (BMG) planned changes to restrict digital access to medical cannabis care are met with widespread rejection among patients.” stated MedCanOneStop in a press release announcing the results of their survey. In total, 9,583 German medical cannabis patients responded to the survey.
“92.6% of patients report fearing a return to illegal channels if telemedicine options are made more difficult.” MedCanOneStop also stated. The survey also determined the following:
- 59.2% of patients would turn to the unregulated market if digital access were lost
- 23.8% would rely on home cultivation to source their medicine
- Only 5.3% would seek medical advice from an on-site doctor
- 96.7% expect access restrictions to lead to growth in the unregulated market
- 82.8% expect the unregulated market to grow ‘significantly’ if restrictions are enacted
- 84.7% report that the legal, medically supervised route has ‘significantly’ or ‘very significantly’ weakened the unregulated market
- 75.6% of respondents would “accept a mandatory annual medical video appointment”
- 93.6% indicated that they would be willing to pay for the annual appointment
Respondents cited traveling distance, waiting time, and pricing as their main concerns regarding the proposed in-person appointment requirement.
“The data clearly shows: Low-threshold access keeps people in the medically supervised, safe system.” said Cedric Lehmann, founder and CEO of MedCanOneStop.